Hi! I am so sorry but I totally forgot about this thread, my school stuff got crazy and it completely slipped my mind.

However, i finished my last final today and was gripped with a desperate desire to fix this damn computer, so I am currently backing up all my stuff to an external HD so I can try the recovery.

I was just wondering, does the recover change everything to a completely blank slate? Like default images, no installed programs, etc?! Just want to know if I'm going to have to spend a long time re-installing all of my software (and I'll have to call Adobe and see if they'll reinstate my CS3 license since this is the third computer I activated it on, oops).

So yeah what exactly does the recovery recover? Does it just do something to background files or does it completely reboot everything?

Well, I did the repair but nothing seems to have changed. The games I tried are still super laggy and even just loading other programs is really slow. I think I might have to just suck it up and do the recovery. What do you think>?

That's probably your best move. Don't forget to backup all your important data to an external drive or DVD's. Also make a list of the programs you currently have on your computer so that you can re-install them.

Okay, except now I can't seem to get into anything, F8 isnt bringing up anything, F10 brings me to a setup menu with a super old-looking UI (blue and grey) and the beginning screen when I turn on the computer flashes so fast I can't read it to see if there's any other short cuts. *frustrated* If its not F8, how else would I get into the Recovery part?

Edit: nevermind, the F8 thing finally worked, I just had to hit it a billion times.

I can't remember now but I followed your instructions on startup and restored it. It went back to factory state, like it was new again, but its still slow on the internet and some games. That's why I think it must be a software problem.

If you restored it to factory specs. there's no reason why such a computer running Windows 7 should be slow. Are you playing these games on the internet? That could be why it's slow. Check your internet speed with this tool.

Well its slow on World of Warcraft, but I play the same game on the same ISP on my laptop 3 feet away and it runs just fine. What could be causing the desktop to be slow and lag badly if the laptop is not, if the only problem you can see is the ISP?